A story I did for AfNull using his idea of the Order of Saint Pia (Seriously, check out his stories, really good reads), this one is more of a tickle tale being told like a history book format. Hope everyone enjoys it.
The following historical account was uncovered during a look into recently found correspondence in a Reims Cathedral. The correspondence had been placed in the vast amount of historical texts stored within the Cathedral, lost among the many other papers held in the building. The source in question was hard to read and many of the words had been lost, despite the best technological efforts to restore it.
Despite that though, a letter was found within the source that should be of some interest to those interested in the dying days of the Viking Age. The details held within concern a figure mostly lost to history. Her actions would appear to be somewhat ludicrous in the time period which she lived in and the years that followed, which explains her fall into obscurity, but considering the person behind the source, it is of no surprise that this particular subject is highlighted.
The source was written by Sister Bertila of the order of Saint Pia of Sycaruse. Having been around since the late ninth century, the order had not yet reached its later infamy and was, at the time, a small order mostly found in Northern Italy as their convent had yet to be built. Although they hadn't rose in importance, the grouping of Nuns and other religious women had grown throughout the ninth and tenth century.
The Order's fascination and use of tickling throughout its existence is no doubt why Sister Bertila was drawn to the following figure and we shall see why this is so in the extract. We have been able to date the letter to around roughly 1015-1020 AD, due to the lack of mention of the spread of Christianity in Scandinavia at this time. As a result, the document provides a a snapshot in time while focusing on one individual in particular who stood out amongst her peers.
This is the tale of Signe The Merciless.
Sister Abigail of Reims,
The reaction to your latest news has been of great relief to many within the Church. Although taking joy in the death of another is no virtue, one who harassed the lands of Christendom and despoiled its women can expect nothing more when her time comes to an end. The rumours of the dreaded Signe's ship sinking below the waves with her on board has done much to hearten those who knew of her outrages.
Her actions provide something of a cruel echo to the fate of Saint Pia herself and my Order has taken an interest in her especially. I am writing to you and others throughout the Christian realms as word has reached my ears that many considered Signe as something of a jape, a joke thanks to her methods. I can tell you now that there is no mirth in her actions, except that which was forced from her victims.
Of all the raiders from the north, Signe was stood out at first due to her being female, as was every member of her pitiless band. She recruited those whose husbands had been lost fighting Christian soldiers, preferring those who may wish for revenge against their foes above all else. Her own birth and early life are still shrouded in mystery, nothing had ever been said of her until ten years ago, when she first began her raids.
She was first known with her strikes into Normandy itself. While other of her kind preferred to strike at villages and larger settlements for their riches, Signe, at first, aimed for nunneries. Although those buildings which house us may be further inland, this wicked north-woman and her band made the journey as best they could to assault those who secluded themselves in spiritual contemplation and dedication. These were not her only targets, but her favourites.
Such tales of these attacks have remained throughout the years. Flanders was the area which she enjoyed striking at the most. No maiden was safe from Signe and her vile crew, one convent in particular, located near Veurne, was the site of her fiercest attack on such a location. This was merely a year when she had begun raiding the coast and would help make her reputation.
The convent was isolated enough to allow Signe and her band to attack without drawing attention to themselves. With its weak defences, they were able to infiltrate and overrun the place in no time at all. The small number of Nuns were mostly novices, left there as the Mother Superior and others had left to consult at the Abbey in Veurne itself with the Bishop. There was no expectation of trouble of any kind, leading to them being easily overwhelmed and taken captive.
The convent held numerous pieces of valuable items, placed there by request of a noble due to his death. The treasures had been stored away and Signe was eager to find them, so she bound each of the Nuns out in the main hall of the convent itself, daring to go so far as to strip them of their clothing to add further hideous assaults upon their persons.
It was the next action that would secure her reputation. Even now, I hear that there are those who mock the women who were put under such a torment. For those that do, I merely say that they must not have endured such an ordeal. It might not have been painful or drawn blood as other torments, but Signe's evil showed in how she exploited the limits of the body with the mere touch of feathers.
Tickling was Signe's primary tool for torturing her victims and they would soon discover how unbearable such treatment was. The group of twenty Nuns, stripped completely naked, were set upon by Signe and her followers, their fingers proving dexterous enough to tickle them relentlessly, forcing them to scream with laughter as the raiders tormented them.
Signe herself remained standing away from it, as she was prone to do. She would watch her followers torment her victims, seeking out the spots which made them laugh the hardest, their naked bodies having so many targets. Once she determined who was most ticklish and where, she would descend upon them, using her favoured implements of torture, raven feathers.
Signe began this process with the Nuns, straddling a young maiden who had joined the order, ignoring her begging for mercy as she used two of the feathers on her victim. She had noticed that the armpits were of a great sensitivity and swirled her plumes around the underarms. By all accounts, Signe only smiled herself when she heard the laughing of her victims who tried their best to beg for mercy, not that she ever granted it.
Once she had her fill of one victim, she moved onto another. Signe asked no questions, even if the Nuns tried desperately to tell her that they would give her the location of the treasure. But cruelty always overrode greed in Signe's foul heart. She would torment one victim after another, her feathers stroking along their most sensitive spots, whether it be their stomachs, feet or even their breasts. No area of ticklish skin was spared as Signe stroked her feathers over their writhing bodies.
The worst of the torture was reserved for a maiden of only twenty-one summers. Sworn in to the convent only recently, her ticklish bosom attracted the attention of Signe greatly. She straddled her victim's legs and began to stroke her with her feathers, tormenting the sides and undersides of her breasts as the plumes went all over them. The Nun screamed and howled endlessly, having promised to tell Signe where the gold was hidden numerous times, but to no avail.
There was no inch of compassion in Signe as she tortured the Nun, even using her black feathers to stroke over the bare nipples before her, making the woman wail like one of the damned. Only when her sadistic lusts for the forced laughter of others was sated did she end it. Her followers grabbed the treasure, but the misery of her captives would not end there.
Each one of Signe's band grabbed onto of the Nuns, leaving only a small number behind to tell the tale of what had happened. Signe herself grabbed onto the one whose breasts she had tickled so evilly with feathers, telling her that she would make a fine slave to tickle whenever she wished. Such a horrible fate befell any woman taken captive by Signe as they were said to be forced to endure a servitude where she would tickle them whenever it pleased her, those she didn't sell into slavery becoming her personal toys.
When news of the raid spread, it was with some derision and doubt from others that it had happened at all. But I had spoken with the Nuns involved and I can vouch for the truth in it. I do not speak their names so that their shame will not spread, but I have great sympathy for them and the ordeal that they were forced to endure. Only out Saint Pia had been strong enough to come through such a horror intact and I cannot expect others to endure so well when I know how much a touch of a feather can torment someone.
Signe would go on to make similar attacks, taking treasure and slaves with each one. Rumours of her techniques of torture were why some were so willing to underestimate her, including Baroness Richilde of Montreuil. The Baroness had seen her lands along the coast be subjected to numerous attacks by Signe, her tickle torture of the inhabitants leading the Baroness to believe that Signe lacked the level of cruelty that many of those from the north had and could even be reasoned with. Under a flag of truce, she approached Signe's ship as it was seen off the coast. On her boat were four of her handmaidens, as a sign of her peaceful intentions.
Richilde's noble spirit was to be betrayed as Signe took her and her handmaidens captive the moment they were on board. Mocking the Baroness for her attempt at peace, Signe then ordered her stripped naked and bound to the mast with her crew seeing to the handmaidens. The deck of the ship saw them tied and helpless as the women from the north partook in their usual debauched torture of their captives.
Having been the one to lead this mission of peace, Richilde had to endure the knowledge that she had led her handmaidens into such a trap as well as enduring her own punishment. With her naked body on view, it was Signe who approached her, claiming her the Baroness as her prize alone. Signe pulled forth her raven feathers, using them to explore the naked skin of the Baroness as she burst into the laughter the instant they touched her.
Such frenzied cries were echoed by the other four captives on the ship as the entire group of raiders descended upon them. The women were tormented in the most humiliating of ways as they were tickled by groups of the raiders. It is said that all four were tested by the raiders, seeing which one among them had the most ticklish of a particular spot by tickling them all at the same time. Four sets of armpits were assaulted by wriggling fingers, the hollows shown no mercy from the raiders.
What followed was further tickling on the ribs, sides and belly of the captured victims, the raiders performing cruel tests in order to gauge which one was most ticklish where. Ignoring the pleas of their captives, they spent many hours tickling every spot as fingers dug into their stomachs and hips while feathers stroked over their breasts and feet. Only after the captive handmaidens had been tickled to the point of exhaustion did it stop.
By now, they spots had been properly explored, with one proving to have prominent and ticklish buttocks, especially with fingers squeezing them endlessly. Another had armpits susceptible to fingernails lightly circling inside of them, keeping her on the edge of hysteria with the softest of touches. Fingers pinching and counting the ribs of the third would drive her to madness, even begging to betray the secrets of the Baroness to get her to stop. The fourth, having a navel that was very sensitive to the touch of a feather, found that the raiders would play with it by inserting a feather inside of it and spinning it about endlessly, making her cry with laughter.
Forced to watch this, Richilde was no doubt convulsed with guilt for having led her handmaidens into such a trap. But her own misery would have been greatly compounded by the ticklish torment she would have to endure. As shocking as it was for those with any sense of morality, Signe was happy to exploit a terrible weakness of Richilde as she discovered the Baroness' most ticklish spot was her womanhood.
Having uncovered this fact, Signe exploited it ruthlessly, the lower lips of the Baroness being tormented by the stroke of the raider's raven feathers. The dual plumes teased her femininity, forcibly arousing her and adding further humiliation and torture to her treatment. Such sensations would have been indescribable, especially when applied by an enemy who delighted in humiliating others.
For several hours, the Baroness was tickled as the feathers stroked between her legs, the sinful sensations she was feeling no doubt growing worse with each passing minute. Her body became flushed from pleasure she had no wish to feel, even as it threatened to take over her body. It is said that Signe never let the feathers leave her womanhood through all that time, no matter how much Richilde pleaded her for mercy.
It is not unknown for tickling to create arousal, as sinful as it might be, but a person cannot help how they react to such a strong sensation, as anyone who has been tickled will tell you. For Signe to then force this arousal to new heights with her feather's touch was a display of how she loved to inflict humiliation and suffering on anyone she deemed to be her personal plaything.
The torment would carry on for some hours before one of the handmaidens was allowed to go free, but without her clothing. Having had tickled the Baroness for hours on end without giving her the mercy of a pleasurable release, Signe was determined to keep her as her pleasure slave. The last the handmaiden saw of her former friends and mistress were them sailing away to a new and miserable existence as the pleasure slaves of Signe and her followers.
This event would prove that nothing would stop Signe from taking what she wanted. No matter if anyone approached her peacefully and with the best of intentions, she would betray them for her own pleasure, their torment being her only goal. Such an action only helped Signe's infamy grow, reaching past the Alps themselves as it was from this that I first heard her name.
Such a reputation would lead to Signe's most reprehensible action, the taking of Zuid Castle in Lower Lotharingia and the capture of Duchess Yolande and her daughter, Marie. Duchess Yolande had lost her husband to a raider attack, his successful counter-attack nevertheless cost him his life. Yolande, known for her iron will, inner strength and great beauty, had fought off several incursions from other raiders since her husband's death. Her daughter had taken after her mother in many respects and, although young, was noted for her own looks and fire in battle.
Such a pair would have no doubt attracted Signe to them as targets. But the Duchess had proved to be wily enough, the defences along her coast line swift enough to repel any would be attacks from multiple raiders. For the Duchess though, these defences would be stretched to breaking point during one long summer when she had to deal a war from overland and and further attempts from the Norsemen to strike at her lands. Although she managed to defeat each attack in turn, Signe used the confusion to slip her band into Yolande's domain and to Zuid Castle itself.
Due to the conflicts, Yolande had few men in her castle itself, with them having spread to help with her numerous wars. With Signe having managed to infiltrate the castle, she waited until night when her followers captured the castle gate, allowing her band to come into the castle itself. Realising her situation was hopeless and wanting to spare those under protection from slaughter, Yolande offered to surrender. In truth, fighting until the bitter end may have been a much kinder fate.
Bringing the inhabitants of Zuid Castle before her, Signe selected the fairest women among them, interring the rest in the dungeons. For those that she selected, Signe was to inflict upon them her usual brand of torture, stripping them and tying them to various points of the castle as her band stole all the treasures they could find while tickling the hapless victims. The only mercy to be found here was that Yolande and Marie were bound in different parts of the castle, so they would not see each other's humiliation.
The Duchess would be bound in her own courtyard, her cries even able to reach the depths of the dungeons themselves as Signe saw to her captive herself. Bringing out her feathers, the bound Duchess was forced into laughter as the merciless raider tickled her naked body with her plumes, stroking her from her neck down to her toes while her laughter destroyed the heart of her followers. Even one as strong as Yolande was soon forced to plead for mercy, especially as the feathers swirled over her breasts, tickling them for hours on end.
What was worse was the fact that Signe relayed this knowledge to her followers, instructing them to aim for the same spots on Marie, the daughter of the Duchess sharing her mother's weakness for plumes along her breasts. Both would spend the day unable to even speak without being forced into laughter from the feathers stroking over their weakest areas. Anyone else would have been moved to pity from their pleading words, but Signe was only encouraged.
They were not the only ones who suffered under the torments of the raiders. Throughout the castle, the maidens of the Duchess were subjected to cruel torments similar to that of Baroness Richilde. Arousal had become a key element in Signe's arsenal of torment, the titillation of those under her captivity greatly increasing the speed in which she was able to make them tell her where they stored their treasures.
A feather placed along a sensitive womanhood or constantly flicking over nipples would be enough to stir the fires of arousal and make the body yearn for release, even if the mind and soul scream against it. Signe had become a master of amplifying the desires of the flesh so they could overcome all, using tickling to turn any will to dust after they had been toyed with her feathers.
It was so with Duchess Yolande. After hours of her breasts feeling the feathers circling around her nipples, she agreed to whatever Signe demanded. That was not enough for the raider though, who applied the feather's touch for even longer, asserting how much she dominated the Duchess, tickling her past endurance as the arousal and ticklish sensations only increased with every moment.
When she had driven the Duchess to the very limits of her sanity, Signe stopped and demanded that Yolande agree that she could take whatever treasure she took from the castle. Having endured far beyond her limits, the Duchess agreed to this, not realising what she had done until Signe made her way to leave, taking Marie with her.
Although the Duchess begged Signe to take her instead, the raider merely laughed in her face, having enjoyed making her suffer so much that she was going to do so by turning Marie into one of her toys. Bound and helpless, Yolande was forced to watch as the northern women left, taking their treasure and Marie with them.
It took an entire day for Yolande and her followers to free themselves. By then, Signe had managed to flee and take to the waters in her ship. To this day, Yolande searches for her daughter, but has found no success and the death of Signe herself has rendered her search almost certainly doomed to failure.
These are the most infamous of the actions of Signe the Merciless. The belief that she was nothing more than a joke due to her use of tickling is one I hope to dispel. It can be a cruel technique to use, especially on untouched maidens. Beware those who may think to use it again, for it is a torture that may cause laughter and leave no marks, but it can sap the strength of the mind and soul alike from its abuses of the body.
Heed my words, for another like Signe may one day rise to show the torture that tickling can inflict upon a person and all may suffer from it.
Sister Bertila of Ravenna
---
The following historical account was uncovered during a look into recently found correspondence in a Reims Cathedral. The correspondence had been placed in the vast amount of historical texts stored within the Cathedral, lost among the many other papers held in the building. The source in question was hard to read and many of the words had been lost, despite the best technological efforts to restore it.
Despite that though, a letter was found within the source that should be of some interest to those interested in the dying days of the Viking Age. The details held within concern a figure mostly lost to history. Her actions would appear to be somewhat ludicrous in the time period which she lived in and the years that followed, which explains her fall into obscurity, but considering the person behind the source, it is of no surprise that this particular subject is highlighted.
The source was written by Sister Bertila of the order of Saint Pia of Sycaruse. Having been around since the late ninth century, the order had not yet reached its later infamy and was, at the time, a small order mostly found in Northern Italy as their convent had yet to be built. Although they hadn't rose in importance, the grouping of Nuns and other religious women had grown throughout the ninth and tenth century.
The Order's fascination and use of tickling throughout its existence is no doubt why Sister Bertila was drawn to the following figure and we shall see why this is so in the extract. We have been able to date the letter to around roughly 1015-1020 AD, due to the lack of mention of the spread of Christianity in Scandinavia at this time. As a result, the document provides a a snapshot in time while focusing on one individual in particular who stood out amongst her peers.
This is the tale of Signe The Merciless.
---
Sister Abigail of Reims,
The reaction to your latest news has been of great relief to many within the Church. Although taking joy in the death of another is no virtue, one who harassed the lands of Christendom and despoiled its women can expect nothing more when her time comes to an end. The rumours of the dreaded Signe's ship sinking below the waves with her on board has done much to hearten those who knew of her outrages.
Her actions provide something of a cruel echo to the fate of Saint Pia herself and my Order has taken an interest in her especially. I am writing to you and others throughout the Christian realms as word has reached my ears that many considered Signe as something of a jape, a joke thanks to her methods. I can tell you now that there is no mirth in her actions, except that which was forced from her victims.
Of all the raiders from the north, Signe was stood out at first due to her being female, as was every member of her pitiless band. She recruited those whose husbands had been lost fighting Christian soldiers, preferring those who may wish for revenge against their foes above all else. Her own birth and early life are still shrouded in mystery, nothing had ever been said of her until ten years ago, when she first began her raids.
She was first known with her strikes into Normandy itself. While other of her kind preferred to strike at villages and larger settlements for their riches, Signe, at first, aimed for nunneries. Although those buildings which house us may be further inland, this wicked north-woman and her band made the journey as best they could to assault those who secluded themselves in spiritual contemplation and dedication. These were not her only targets, but her favourites.
Such tales of these attacks have remained throughout the years. Flanders was the area which she enjoyed striking at the most. No maiden was safe from Signe and her vile crew, one convent in particular, located near Veurne, was the site of her fiercest attack on such a location. This was merely a year when she had begun raiding the coast and would help make her reputation.
The convent was isolated enough to allow Signe and her band to attack without drawing attention to themselves. With its weak defences, they were able to infiltrate and overrun the place in no time at all. The small number of Nuns were mostly novices, left there as the Mother Superior and others had left to consult at the Abbey in Veurne itself with the Bishop. There was no expectation of trouble of any kind, leading to them being easily overwhelmed and taken captive.
The convent held numerous pieces of valuable items, placed there by request of a noble due to his death. The treasures had been stored away and Signe was eager to find them, so she bound each of the Nuns out in the main hall of the convent itself, daring to go so far as to strip them of their clothing to add further hideous assaults upon their persons.
It was the next action that would secure her reputation. Even now, I hear that there are those who mock the women who were put under such a torment. For those that do, I merely say that they must not have endured such an ordeal. It might not have been painful or drawn blood as other torments, but Signe's evil showed in how she exploited the limits of the body with the mere touch of feathers.
Tickling was Signe's primary tool for torturing her victims and they would soon discover how unbearable such treatment was. The group of twenty Nuns, stripped completely naked, were set upon by Signe and her followers, their fingers proving dexterous enough to tickle them relentlessly, forcing them to scream with laughter as the raiders tormented them.
Signe herself remained standing away from it, as she was prone to do. She would watch her followers torment her victims, seeking out the spots which made them laugh the hardest, their naked bodies having so many targets. Once she determined who was most ticklish and where, she would descend upon them, using her favoured implements of torture, raven feathers.
Signe began this process with the Nuns, straddling a young maiden who had joined the order, ignoring her begging for mercy as she used two of the feathers on her victim. She had noticed that the armpits were of a great sensitivity and swirled her plumes around the underarms. By all accounts, Signe only smiled herself when she heard the laughing of her victims who tried their best to beg for mercy, not that she ever granted it.
Once she had her fill of one victim, she moved onto another. Signe asked no questions, even if the Nuns tried desperately to tell her that they would give her the location of the treasure. But cruelty always overrode greed in Signe's foul heart. She would torment one victim after another, her feathers stroking along their most sensitive spots, whether it be their stomachs, feet or even their breasts. No area of ticklish skin was spared as Signe stroked her feathers over their writhing bodies.
The worst of the torture was reserved for a maiden of only twenty-one summers. Sworn in to the convent only recently, her ticklish bosom attracted the attention of Signe greatly. She straddled her victim's legs and began to stroke her with her feathers, tormenting the sides and undersides of her breasts as the plumes went all over them. The Nun screamed and howled endlessly, having promised to tell Signe where the gold was hidden numerous times, but to no avail.
There was no inch of compassion in Signe as she tortured the Nun, even using her black feathers to stroke over the bare nipples before her, making the woman wail like one of the damned. Only when her sadistic lusts for the forced laughter of others was sated did she end it. Her followers grabbed the treasure, but the misery of her captives would not end there.
Each one of Signe's band grabbed onto of the Nuns, leaving only a small number behind to tell the tale of what had happened. Signe herself grabbed onto the one whose breasts she had tickled so evilly with feathers, telling her that she would make a fine slave to tickle whenever she wished. Such a horrible fate befell any woman taken captive by Signe as they were said to be forced to endure a servitude where she would tickle them whenever it pleased her, those she didn't sell into slavery becoming her personal toys.
When news of the raid spread, it was with some derision and doubt from others that it had happened at all. But I had spoken with the Nuns involved and I can vouch for the truth in it. I do not speak their names so that their shame will not spread, but I have great sympathy for them and the ordeal that they were forced to endure. Only out Saint Pia had been strong enough to come through such a horror intact and I cannot expect others to endure so well when I know how much a touch of a feather can torment someone.
Signe would go on to make similar attacks, taking treasure and slaves with each one. Rumours of her techniques of torture were why some were so willing to underestimate her, including Baroness Richilde of Montreuil. The Baroness had seen her lands along the coast be subjected to numerous attacks by Signe, her tickle torture of the inhabitants leading the Baroness to believe that Signe lacked the level of cruelty that many of those from the north had and could even be reasoned with. Under a flag of truce, she approached Signe's ship as it was seen off the coast. On her boat were four of her handmaidens, as a sign of her peaceful intentions.
Richilde's noble spirit was to be betrayed as Signe took her and her handmaidens captive the moment they were on board. Mocking the Baroness for her attempt at peace, Signe then ordered her stripped naked and bound to the mast with her crew seeing to the handmaidens. The deck of the ship saw them tied and helpless as the women from the north partook in their usual debauched torture of their captives.
Having been the one to lead this mission of peace, Richilde had to endure the knowledge that she had led her handmaidens into such a trap as well as enduring her own punishment. With her naked body on view, it was Signe who approached her, claiming her the Baroness as her prize alone. Signe pulled forth her raven feathers, using them to explore the naked skin of the Baroness as she burst into the laughter the instant they touched her.
Such frenzied cries were echoed by the other four captives on the ship as the entire group of raiders descended upon them. The women were tormented in the most humiliating of ways as they were tickled by groups of the raiders. It is said that all four were tested by the raiders, seeing which one among them had the most ticklish of a particular spot by tickling them all at the same time. Four sets of armpits were assaulted by wriggling fingers, the hollows shown no mercy from the raiders.
What followed was further tickling on the ribs, sides and belly of the captured victims, the raiders performing cruel tests in order to gauge which one was most ticklish where. Ignoring the pleas of their captives, they spent many hours tickling every spot as fingers dug into their stomachs and hips while feathers stroked over their breasts and feet. Only after the captive handmaidens had been tickled to the point of exhaustion did it stop.
By now, they spots had been properly explored, with one proving to have prominent and ticklish buttocks, especially with fingers squeezing them endlessly. Another had armpits susceptible to fingernails lightly circling inside of them, keeping her on the edge of hysteria with the softest of touches. Fingers pinching and counting the ribs of the third would drive her to madness, even begging to betray the secrets of the Baroness to get her to stop. The fourth, having a navel that was very sensitive to the touch of a feather, found that the raiders would play with it by inserting a feather inside of it and spinning it about endlessly, making her cry with laughter.
Forced to watch this, Richilde was no doubt convulsed with guilt for having led her handmaidens into such a trap. But her own misery would have been greatly compounded by the ticklish torment she would have to endure. As shocking as it was for those with any sense of morality, Signe was happy to exploit a terrible weakness of Richilde as she discovered the Baroness' most ticklish spot was her womanhood.
Having uncovered this fact, Signe exploited it ruthlessly, the lower lips of the Baroness being tormented by the stroke of the raider's raven feathers. The dual plumes teased her femininity, forcibly arousing her and adding further humiliation and torture to her treatment. Such sensations would have been indescribable, especially when applied by an enemy who delighted in humiliating others.
For several hours, the Baroness was tickled as the feathers stroked between her legs, the sinful sensations she was feeling no doubt growing worse with each passing minute. Her body became flushed from pleasure she had no wish to feel, even as it threatened to take over her body. It is said that Signe never let the feathers leave her womanhood through all that time, no matter how much Richilde pleaded her for mercy.
It is not unknown for tickling to create arousal, as sinful as it might be, but a person cannot help how they react to such a strong sensation, as anyone who has been tickled will tell you. For Signe to then force this arousal to new heights with her feather's touch was a display of how she loved to inflict humiliation and suffering on anyone she deemed to be her personal plaything.
The torment would carry on for some hours before one of the handmaidens was allowed to go free, but without her clothing. Having had tickled the Baroness for hours on end without giving her the mercy of a pleasurable release, Signe was determined to keep her as her pleasure slave. The last the handmaiden saw of her former friends and mistress were them sailing away to a new and miserable existence as the pleasure slaves of Signe and her followers.
This event would prove that nothing would stop Signe from taking what she wanted. No matter if anyone approached her peacefully and with the best of intentions, she would betray them for her own pleasure, their torment being her only goal. Such an action only helped Signe's infamy grow, reaching past the Alps themselves as it was from this that I first heard her name.
Such a reputation would lead to Signe's most reprehensible action, the taking of Zuid Castle in Lower Lotharingia and the capture of Duchess Yolande and her daughter, Marie. Duchess Yolande had lost her husband to a raider attack, his successful counter-attack nevertheless cost him his life. Yolande, known for her iron will, inner strength and great beauty, had fought off several incursions from other raiders since her husband's death. Her daughter had taken after her mother in many respects and, although young, was noted for her own looks and fire in battle.
Such a pair would have no doubt attracted Signe to them as targets. But the Duchess had proved to be wily enough, the defences along her coast line swift enough to repel any would be attacks from multiple raiders. For the Duchess though, these defences would be stretched to breaking point during one long summer when she had to deal a war from overland and and further attempts from the Norsemen to strike at her lands. Although she managed to defeat each attack in turn, Signe used the confusion to slip her band into Yolande's domain and to Zuid Castle itself.
Due to the conflicts, Yolande had few men in her castle itself, with them having spread to help with her numerous wars. With Signe having managed to infiltrate the castle, she waited until night when her followers captured the castle gate, allowing her band to come into the castle itself. Realising her situation was hopeless and wanting to spare those under protection from slaughter, Yolande offered to surrender. In truth, fighting until the bitter end may have been a much kinder fate.
Bringing the inhabitants of Zuid Castle before her, Signe selected the fairest women among them, interring the rest in the dungeons. For those that she selected, Signe was to inflict upon them her usual brand of torture, stripping them and tying them to various points of the castle as her band stole all the treasures they could find while tickling the hapless victims. The only mercy to be found here was that Yolande and Marie were bound in different parts of the castle, so they would not see each other's humiliation.
The Duchess would be bound in her own courtyard, her cries even able to reach the depths of the dungeons themselves as Signe saw to her captive herself. Bringing out her feathers, the bound Duchess was forced into laughter as the merciless raider tickled her naked body with her plumes, stroking her from her neck down to her toes while her laughter destroyed the heart of her followers. Even one as strong as Yolande was soon forced to plead for mercy, especially as the feathers swirled over her breasts, tickling them for hours on end.
What was worse was the fact that Signe relayed this knowledge to her followers, instructing them to aim for the same spots on Marie, the daughter of the Duchess sharing her mother's weakness for plumes along her breasts. Both would spend the day unable to even speak without being forced into laughter from the feathers stroking over their weakest areas. Anyone else would have been moved to pity from their pleading words, but Signe was only encouraged.
They were not the only ones who suffered under the torments of the raiders. Throughout the castle, the maidens of the Duchess were subjected to cruel torments similar to that of Baroness Richilde. Arousal had become a key element in Signe's arsenal of torment, the titillation of those under her captivity greatly increasing the speed in which she was able to make them tell her where they stored their treasures.
A feather placed along a sensitive womanhood or constantly flicking over nipples would be enough to stir the fires of arousal and make the body yearn for release, even if the mind and soul scream against it. Signe had become a master of amplifying the desires of the flesh so they could overcome all, using tickling to turn any will to dust after they had been toyed with her feathers.
It was so with Duchess Yolande. After hours of her breasts feeling the feathers circling around her nipples, she agreed to whatever Signe demanded. That was not enough for the raider though, who applied the feather's touch for even longer, asserting how much she dominated the Duchess, tickling her past endurance as the arousal and ticklish sensations only increased with every moment.
When she had driven the Duchess to the very limits of her sanity, Signe stopped and demanded that Yolande agree that she could take whatever treasure she took from the castle. Having endured far beyond her limits, the Duchess agreed to this, not realising what she had done until Signe made her way to leave, taking Marie with her.
Although the Duchess begged Signe to take her instead, the raider merely laughed in her face, having enjoyed making her suffer so much that she was going to do so by turning Marie into one of her toys. Bound and helpless, Yolande was forced to watch as the northern women left, taking their treasure and Marie with them.
It took an entire day for Yolande and her followers to free themselves. By then, Signe had managed to flee and take to the waters in her ship. To this day, Yolande searches for her daughter, but has found no success and the death of Signe herself has rendered her search almost certainly doomed to failure.
These are the most infamous of the actions of Signe the Merciless. The belief that she was nothing more than a joke due to her use of tickling is one I hope to dispel. It can be a cruel technique to use, especially on untouched maidens. Beware those who may think to use it again, for it is a torture that may cause laughter and leave no marks, but it can sap the strength of the mind and soul alike from its abuses of the body.
Heed my words, for another like Signe may one day rise to show the torture that tickling can inflict upon a person and all may suffer from it.
Sister Bertila of Ravenna
